Chapter 5

The following week, Marie had been out to attend the funeral of a relative, and Brian had been left pretty much to his own devices while working on the Galloway case. Joey had since written up and turned in her report for school, and was going to get it back today. Brian had been looking forward to the grade she had received.

He was also looking forward to the weekend; he and Joey would be having some real father-daughter time in California. Brian had planned it for months, but not being able to get time off around Joey's birthday, he had settled on this coming weekend instead. Better a few months late than never, and the girl was certainly not complaining.

He ws now heading for the break room, where he had found Lorelei engrossed in a book, a mug of coffee beside her. There was no better time than to break the ice with the clerk.

"Reading anything good?" Brian asked, causing Lorelei to jump.

She looked up, seeing it was him. "Hello, Detective. You nearly scared me to death."

"Oh come on, I'm not really that scary looking, am I? And to you, dear, it's Brian as long as we aren't out there." He jerked a thumb back toward the squad room.

He then glanced closer at her book. "Casualties of War by Daniel Lang?"

Lorelei nodded. "It's very fascinating. It covers a lot of monstrosities that happened during the Vietnam conflict."

Brian grinned. "I know; I've read it. Twice, in fact. I figured most women read romance novels, though," he added teasingly.

"I'm not most women," she smiled back. "I have no interest in those kinds of books. My father was a history teacher and I rather picked up this type of genre from him."

Holy shit Brian thought, she's not only not that bad on the eyes–at least mine–but she has a brain too. That was more than he could say for most of the bimbos that worked as clerks downstairs.

"Have you also heard of The Art of War?" Lorelei asked, snapping Brian out of his thoughts.

He nodded. "Read that one too. One of the oldest books in the world on military strategy. As a matter of fact, one of my instructors at the academy often referred to it when applying some of its lessons."

"It's apparently worked well for you," she replied. "I've heard many people speak highly of you, including both Marie and Captain Shields."

"Shields might be biased," Brian chuckled. "He was another one of my instructors at the academy back in the day."

"And now he's your boss," she smiled. "I guess things happen for a reason."

"No doubt." He then took a deep breath, taking a chance on the kill that Marie and Joey had been nagging him about the past week.

Grow some balls and fill out the application, Brian, he thought to himself.

"Lorelei," he finally said, "what time is your shift over?"

She gave him a wide eyed look. "Four o'clock, why?"

"How about that? My shift ends then also. Actually, my daughter is having some friends over for a slumber party tonight and I'd like a couple hours of peace and quiet with another adult until then. Would you be up for real coffee instead of the rotgut they make around here and, oh I don't know, maybe getting into another book discussion?"

Lorelei was slightly taken aback but smiled. He wasn't exactly the dream guy she'd fantasized about most of her life, but he would certainly do.

"Of course," she finally said. "It would beat going home to an empty apartment, at least for awhile."